Manually Updating Podcasts

Since iTunes 12, there has been a “feature” that acts as a bug to us. Apple stops updating podcasts if they haven’t been listened to. Unfortunately this means that if a podcast that we air doesn’t play in its entirety — for example, if a live programmer needs to pause a long show — then it isn’t updated the next week. It is a feature to Apple as it reduces bandwidth and Internet usage to people who may in fact not be listening to the podcasts to which they subscribed. To us it is a bug, which means (for now) that a human must update the podcasts manually.

If you show proceeds a podcast, which is usually a show marked as “syndicated” on our calendar — examples include BackStory, Radio EcoShock and Big Picture Science — then you should read this page on how to update the podcasts manually so we avoid re-playing previously heard programming. Thanks.

Figure 1. iTunes Screenshot.

STEPS

1) iTunes will be open. Bring it to the front, and click on the podcasts icon next to the music icon. (Arrow 1)

2) If you see an exclamation point (Arrow 2) next to a podcast simply click on the exclamation point. A popup window will open and will read something like: “iTunes has stopped updating this podcast because you have not listened to any episodes recently. Would you like to resume updating this podcast?” CLICK YES!

3) Once you have updated all of the items with exclamation points next to them, please click the Music notation icon just to the left of the podcast icon to return to the preferred view (Playlists).